How to Learn Efficiently—Using Mind Maps

“In our daily study, we can never remember what we have seen”, this is a situation we often encounter. When more and more knowledge is learned, it is easy to forget. In this case, some people choose to take notes, so, how to take notes become more important. In fact, mind maps is a good choice, that means how to learn efficiently through mind maps is significant.

Mind map is a good tool for integrating knowledge, it can help you get how to learn efficiently information easily. Reading a book or completing some exercises can be condensed into a few pictures, and you can recall the content of the time by looking at the pictures. In daily life, the author has always liked to use mind maps to summarize records. For mind maps with a lot of content, you can save them in your mobile phone after you finish them, and you can look through them at any time when the time is fragmented to make full use of the learning time.

Since the mind map is a great help to our memory, the author will take readers to learn how to use the mind map. First of all, let us get to know the mind map in general.

The mind map is essentially a visual chart that can restore the process of thinking and generating ideas in the brain. By capturing and expressing divergent thinking, the internal processes of the brain can be presented externally.

Because the mind map is closely related to divergent thinking in the brain, its main function is to improve human memory and divergent thinking. For students with poor abstract thinking ability, the unique “image memory” of mind maps helps students to remember knowledge more easily.

Mind maps can be applied in a wide range. A blog has done a survey and summarized the 10 common areas of mind maps: to do matters, preparation for presentation, taking notes, problem solving, project planning, decision making, knowledge management, Project management, personal thinking and writing.

Then, the author summarized the way of drawing mind maps for readers:

Create a Central Theme

The central theme should contain an image representing the theme of the mind map, located in the center of the page. Since our brain will respond better to visual stimuli, it is recommended that the central image is eye-catching and easily leads to associations.

When drawing a mind map, it is wise to spend time to personalize the central theme, which will strengthen the connection between users and the content of the mind map.

Add Branch

The main branches follow the central image, and they are the key branch themes. In order to make each branch explored as much as possible, it is also necessary to add subtopics.

Mind maps can continuously add new branches without worrying about being limited to only a few options. With more and more ideas added, and the brain is free to absorb new associations from different ideas, the structure of the mind map will become more natural.

Add Keywords

When adding a branch to the mind map, the most important thing is to enter the key ideas. An important principle for drawing mind maps is to use one word for each branch. Because compared with using multiple words or phrases, keeping one word can improve memory more effectively.

One word per branch also applies to the information block of the core topic. Using keywords to trigger associations in the brain can encourage users to remember a lot of information. Farrand, Hussain, and Hennessey confirmed in 2002 that medical students who use mind map memory have a 10% increase in long-term memory of real information.

Different Branches, Different Colors

Mind mapping stimulates whole-brain thinking because it brings together a wide range of cerebral cortical skills from logic and numbers to creativity and specificity.

A good example of whole-brain thinking is color coding for mind maps. Color coding connects vision and logic, which helps the brain create spiritual shortcuts. It is conducive to classifying, emphasizing, analyzing information and identifying more previously undiscovered connections. Compared with monochrome images, color images are more attractive.

Add Images

Images have the ability to convey more information than a word, a sentence, or even an article. These images are processed by the brain. Meanwhile, all images are used as visual stimuli to help recall information. Perfectly, images are a kind of universal language, which can overcome any language barriers.

Essentially, we learned to process images at a very young age. According to the research of Margulies (1991), before children learn language, they use imagination to connect related concepts in their minds. For this reason, mind maps maximize the potential of powerful images.

Actually, the writer even makes a good mind map for IELTS vocabulary remembering, you can learn from this mind map for your learning:

In conclusion, when readers draw mind maps, you can pay attention to the following 2 points:

1. The central theme is used to record the main content. For example, if you are using a mind map to describe a physical object, then you need to place an image of the physical object in the center.

2. The branches extend and diverge from this image. First, it will be divided into various secondary themes, which are directly connected to the central theme, and then the tertiary themes and more sub-themes will also be expressed in the form of branches and attached to the parent theme.

The ultimate goal of learning mind mapping is to master the skills and apply them so that the skill of mind mapping can truly play its value. Faced with different fields, if you can clearly understand its function and drawing method, then readers will not be far away from the master of mind mapping, it means you already understand how to learn efficiently.